July 1, 2025 • 38 mins
We discussed this four months ago and it is worth revisiting, our Anatomy of a Scam Infographic where we discuss the three parts of a scam.
We have some examples of scams that we will break down using the Anatomy of a Scam. Tune in to see if you can find the different parts of these scams.
Let’s Talk About Scams is broadcast live Tuesdays at 8AM PT on K4HD Radio - Hollywood Talk Radio (www.k4hd.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Let’s Talk About Scams TV Show is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Let’s Talk About Scams Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this podcast is intended for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for individual professional / legal advice. The podcast information was carefully compiled from vetted sources and references; however, R.O.S.E. Resources / Outreach to Safeguard the Elderly cannot guarantee that you will not fall victim to a scam.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/let-s-talk-about-scams--6483699/support.
We have some examples of scams that we will break down using the Anatomy of a Scam. Tune in to see if you can find the different parts of these scams.
Let’s Talk About Scams is broadcast live Tuesdays at 8AM PT on K4HD Radio - Hollywood Talk Radio (www.k4hd.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Let’s Talk About Scams TV Show is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Let’s Talk About Scams Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this podcast is intended for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for individual professional / legal advice. The podcast information was carefully compiled from vetted sources and references; however, R.O.S.E. Resources / Outreach to Safeguard the Elderly cannot guarantee that you will not fall victim to a scam.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/let-s-talk-about-scams--6483699/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
This program is designed to provide general information with regards
to the subject matters covered. This information is given with
the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station
are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial,
legal counseling, professional service, or any advice. You should seek
(00:22):
the services of competent professionals before applying or trying any
suggested ideas. The information contained in this podcast is intended
for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for
individual professional legal advice. The podcast information was carefully compiled
from vetted sources and references. However, Rose Resources outreach to
(00:44):
safeguard the elderly cannot guarantee that you will not fall
victim to a scam. Let's talk about scams. It's the
must listen show for anyone who wants to protect themselves
and their loved ones from scams. Every Tuesday am Pacific
time on K four HD Radio, Joyce Petrowski, founder of Rose,
(01:05):
and her guests will provide valuable insights and practical tips
on how to recognize and protect yourself from scams. And
now here is your host, Joyce Petrowski.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Hi, everybody, welcome back. To let's talk about scams. I'm
Joyce Petrowski, founder of Rose Resources Outreach to Safeguard the Elderly,
five oh one C three nonprofit. You can find more
resources on our website at Roseadvocacy dot org. You'll find
our social media links on the homepage and if you
scroll down to the bottom of the homepage, you'll find
(01:42):
where you can sign up for our emailed newsletters and
we also send one out in the mail. You can
sign up for one or both of them, or share
it with a friend or a family member that you
think could benefit from it. And we are looking for
sponsors for this radio show, So if you're interested in
(02:03):
sponsoring this show, reach out to us at info at
Roseadvocacy dot org and let's talk about it. A lot
of great benefits for you out there helping the general
community learning how to spot and avoid falling victim to scams.
So today I'm going to talk about the anatomy of
(02:25):
a scam. This is something that we created at Rose
gosh two years ago. I think when we would go
out and do our presentations, you know, we would try
to talk about the probably the top five to seven
scams that had a tendency to target the older adult population.
And when we're done with the presentation, you know that
(02:49):
same day, the next day, a couple days later, there's
all these new scams out there. You know, they've either
created new ones, or they've taken aspects from two different scams,
three different scams, and put them together and come up
with a whole new scam. And so we were always
behind the eight ball trying to get this information, get
this information out to people, to make everybody aware and educated.
(03:11):
And so we created this Anatomy of a scam to say,
how could we break scams down in general and have
something that really applies to the majority, if not all,
of the scams that are out there. So we talked
about this early on when we first started the show.
And I am going to share my screen to here
(03:35):
we go. Let's see to pull up our Anatomy of
a scam right here. So excuse me. So the first part,
if you see here this initiating contact. Well, how that's
the first step. So a scammer has to contact you
somehow where when scams first started, you know, before or
(04:00):
all the cell phones and all this online stuff, a
lot of it, if not all of it came in
the mail. They would send you letters in the mail.
They're still doing that today, not as much. It's more
costly than just finding people online. And with our cell
phones here, which are really we call them mobile phone
(04:21):
cell phones, but they're when they're connected to the internet,
they are really mobile computers, and you have to treat
them as such, which is why you should always have
your good antivirus anti malware software on your phone as well,
because if it's connected to the internet, it's just like
a computer. And if you're going to protect your computer,
(04:42):
your laptop, your iPad with a good antivirus anti malware
software that is on and running twenty four to seven,
you want to protect your phone as well. So that's
a big way they they'll find you online. They if
you're on social media, they can message you on social media.
That happens a lot like with the romance scams. You know,
(05:04):
they have all these fake profiles out there on social
media and they start commenting on your post and immediately
want to take it to a more secure, private, you know,
messaging app, so it's more private just between the two
of you, but they can also text you, they can
email you, and yeah, you know they can call you.
(05:28):
It happens a lot. There's a lot of phone scams,
there's a lot of tech scams, there's a lot of
email scams out there. So that's the first part, and
we're really hoping that everyone can identify the scam at
this first part, the initiating contact, and then they don't
engage with a scammer, because once you engage, once you
(05:52):
answer that phone, you reply to that text message, you
reply to that email, you call a phone number that's
on the email, that's in something you got in the mail,
that's in a text message, you click on a link
that's in there, that's engaging with the scammer, and it
immediately goes into the second part, creating a compelling reason
(06:13):
to act. And this is where the scammers are experts
and they exploit your emotions. Now we list four of
them here. Fear, need, isolation, greed. I don't really like
the word greed, but it is what it is. They're
going to get you into some sort of emotional state,
and they know the more they can keep you in
(06:36):
that emotional state than the more app they are to get.
Number three here, which is when they request payment. A
lot of times demand payment that they're more app to
get what they want as long as you're in that
emotional state, because I think we can all think back
to times where we've made a decision on something based
(06:56):
out of emotions, and then a couple hours later, a
couple days later, whenever that timeframe is, you're in a
rational state and you're thinking about that decision in that situation.
A lot of times you'll go, oh, I would not
have made that same decision if I was not in
an emotional state, if I was in my rational state
(07:18):
of mind. So scammers know this, and they're going to
exploit your emotions all in an effort to get your money.
And we've gone over some different ways. You know, they
like crypto. When cryptocurrency first came out, it was anonymous
and not so much anymore with new technology and a
lot more resources, law enforcements able to figure out who
(07:41):
those crypto wallets belonged to and trace and trace the
money in the cryptocurrency, so it's not as anonymous, but
they still use it because it's instant, and you know,
at gas stations and shopping malls, there's these ATM machines
and they're not ATM machines from a bank where you
can go put your debit card in and get money out.
(08:03):
They're cryptocurrency ATM machines, and yes, they might have a
sign on them that says, you know, if anybody's forcing
you to put money in here, don't do it, are you?
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Do?
Speaker 2 (08:13):
You know the person that you're sending this money to
have you meant them you know, they might have a
lot of warning signs on it. But the reality is
when someone gets to the point that they are putting
money in a cryptocurrency ATM machine, they're already fully in
that emotional state and they're not even reading the warning signs,
or if they look at them, they're not really understood.
(08:35):
They're not really deciphering what that sign says. All they're
doing is putting the money in all in a goal
to you know, if they were if they were scared
into thinking their grandchild's in trouble, or it's a love
interest and it's a way to continue this love interest,
or if they think they're winning this big prize and
(08:57):
this is a way for them to pay taxes or
fees a lot of different things. They're emotional and they're
not reading those warning signs. That are there. Gift cards, Yes,
they still use gift cards. They don't need you to
send the gift card. They just need you to give
them the information on the back of the gift cards,
(09:18):
so the gift card number and then a lot of
times you have to scratch off or peel off what
the pin number is. That's all they need and then
they have access to that gift card. Wire transfers, again,
it's instant as to how they get the money. Sometimes
with wire transfers it says it could take a day
or it could take a couple of days, depending on
how you set it up, but normally they're going to
(09:38):
get you to send it immediately. And then there's these
peer to peer payment apps, the venmo Zell's, PayPal, etc.
Those are a convenience tool for you. A lot of
people use them, like to send money to their kids
or to a family member, is a gift, or to
if they have someone dog sitting, they might pay their
dog sitter that way, they might pay their babysitter that way,
(10:03):
you know. And there are some people that I've come
across that use them, that have a small company and
they're selling a product and it's just convenient for them.
You know, they might be before they ship the product
because they're not actually meeting the person in person. They're
they're shipping it to somebody that they just have those
QR codes or links where somebody can go on and
(10:26):
pay them via PayPal, Venmo or Zelle. So if you
have those, we understand that it works for some people,
but please have all of the privacy and security settings
that is allowed on those apps. Have that all set up,
have multifactory authentication set up, and make sure you know
(10:48):
who you are sending the money to or who you
are receiving the money from, because your information is then
also in that person's Venmo or zell or PayPal, and
if that person's platform gets the Venmo, PayPal or zell
(11:08):
gets compromised, well then they might have some of your
information and then they might be targeting you to try
to get you to send money through those means as well.
So urgency we have here in the center, the center
button here. The majority of the scams are urgent. Right,
(11:30):
It could really only take a couple hours between initiating contact,
going through creating the compelling reason to act, and then
you sending money to the scammer. There are some scams
which the contact comes and this creating a compelling reason
to act is really more of a grooming. They go
(11:53):
through a grooming process which would kind of be in
between initiating contact and creating a compelling reason to act.
Like a romance scam. They don't come out of the
gate on a romance scam asking for money. They're going
through a grooming process per se to get you into
their absolute trust. So you are only talking to them.
You only believe what they say. Everything's private. It doesn't
(12:17):
matter who's telling you that you know this person. While
they might be a real person, because it might, you know,
sometimes it can be artificial intelligence as well. But you know,
even though it's a real person, they don't have your
best interest at heart. This is not a love interest.
They're just trying to scam you. The deeper you get
into this absolute trust, the harder it is to break
(12:40):
that absolute trust. And so then once the scammer really
feels that they've got you in that absolute trust, they
go right into the having that compelling reason to get
you to send money. And then it's always urgent. The
urgency is, you know, needing the money is always urgent.
They need it right away, and then they always have
multiple reasons and excuses as to why they need more
money and more money and more money. So but then
(13:05):
I wanted to show you some examples of some different
scams that people have sent us that you can kind
of We're going to walk through, Well, where's the contact,
what's the compelling reason to act? And then you know,
how do they, you know, want you to send money.
So I'm going to pull up one of our advisory
board members, doctor Martina Doves. She's been on the show before,
(13:29):
Psychologists that is an expert in these frauds and scams
and the psychology behind them. She had received this one.
I think a lot of us have received these from
you know, this is a Washington Department of Motor Vehicles,
but we've a lot of people received them from Arizona
(13:50):
or Nevada or California really, you know, from whatever state
they live in, or if it's a if it's a
toll fee, toll road fee, it could be from a
different state, things like that. But this is one that
she recently received, and so the contact. She didn't take
a screenshot of the text, but this is the text
(14:11):
that she received, and you know, final notice, So that
gets kind of scary. And this is a Washington Department
of Motor Vehicles, a government agency is so an authority agency,
right because we work with the Motor Vehicle Department when
we have a vehicle to get our driver's license. A
(14:32):
lot of different things. Well, there's an enforcement penalties begin
on June twenty fifth, and so they want you to
pay by June twenty fourth, So there's that urgency to
make this payment before penalties begin, and you have an
outstanding traffic ticket, and so they actually then put some
(14:52):
administrative code in there. I have no clue if this
is an actual code reference or if they're just making
up these code numbers. But if you don't complete payment
by June twenty fourth, we're going to take the following actions.
So you're going to go into a violation database. They're
going to suspend your vehicle registration, suspend your driving privileges,
(15:15):
transfer to a toll booth, and charge thirty five percent
service fee, and you may be prosecuted and your credit
score will be affected. So there's a lot of things
in here that can scare people. You may be prosecuted.
Nobody wants to be prosecuted. And so that's that's something
that could instill fear in you suspend driving privileges for
(15:38):
thirty days. A lot of us drive on a daily basis,
multiple times during the day, and that's part of our
independence and we don't want to have that taken away
from US vehicle registration. Even if they don't suspend driving privileges,
if they suspend your vehicle registration and you're out driving,
you know that's against the law. So again this is
(15:59):
all a fear based in here violations fear based and
here pay now, and then there was a link, and
then here it is please pay immediately. So there's that
urgency before enforcement to avoid license suspension and further legal
disputes and so on this one in particular. You know,
(16:20):
sometimes you might actually get the link that you can
click on other times we've seen this a lot recently,
reply with a why for yes and then reopen the
message to click the link or copy it into your browser.
So that's just a way they've changed it up. Instead
of actually putting the link there, they want you to
(16:41):
reply with a why for yes. So this is one
that's been going around and I think a lot of
people are getting it in a lot of different states.
But so the contact was text message or I it
could have been an email as well. They can come
in emails, text messages. And then the compelling reason to
(17:06):
act that emotional state is they're getting you in that
state of fear, and they're coming from an authority position. Right.
They have this administrative code the Department of Motor Vehicles.
You must complete payment by a certain date or there's
all these fear based tactics down here of things they
could do if you don't pay by this date. And
(17:28):
then here's the urgency, please pay immediately. They want you
to click on the link, and we obviously she did
obviously did not click on the link. But I'm sure
when you go in there, it's going to want you
to transfer the money. It's going to want you to
use a Venmo, PayPal something like that, maybe even have
(17:51):
you know, send cash here who knows, but ways that
they can get money immediately. So that's one example. Let
me pull up a few more here. So here's a
medicare kit scam that was going around. This is a
screenshot of what someone had sent us. You can see
(18:13):
this picture of this kit here and it has CBS
that it's coming from CBS is a reputable company and
they are a big pharmacy. They are a big store national.
They have locations in multiple areas in all different states,
and so it's a big, well known company that a
(18:35):
lot of people are already going to have accounts with,
whether you have purchased something there and you've signed up
for their rewards and so they have your email address
with the rewards or you use them for your pharmacy
and they have your contact information through the pharmacy. But
here's one where you've been randomly selected to get one
(18:58):
of these Medicare kits. And based on the picture, you know,
this kit looks awesome, it looks like it probably costs
a lot of money with the different things that are
in there. But only four people were chosen for this
special giveaway. So it's like, oh wow, you're excited. You're
one of four people that are going to get this,
(19:19):
and they want to express their gratitude for your continued support.
So for people that get this and they are actually
a customer of CBS, this is all the more believable
to them because they are a customer, and especially if
they are on Medicare and CBS is going to know
that they're on Medicare if they're a customer of the pharmacy,
(19:40):
because they're going to have their Medicare information. So again,
all the more believable and large companies do sometimes you know,
it's at their discretion, but sometimes they might send you
a little gift just as a as a thank you. Right, So,
getting little gifts from companies not you know, be out
(20:01):
of the ordinary. I don't know if CBS sends gifts
to their customers or not, but uh, they want you
to click on this link confirm your gift. So right,
so here they've sent you this email or text message
and they get you excited that you're going to win
(20:24):
this prize that you're like, I could really use this.
You're excited, and that's the greed emotion. I'm not real
thrilled with the word greed, but it's all that you
know that you're excited that you're going to get this
prize for free. It's going to have all this great
stuff in it that I can use that I don't
have to go out and buy, so I can save
some money. And they actually give you a list of winners.
(20:46):
Now we've blocked out the email addresses here. But look here,
these are all Yahoo accounts, so you know you they've
sent it to you, and you know this is going
to have could have your address, it's going to have
your email address right here that says not confirmed, and
(21:07):
you're going to see, oh my gosh, these other three
email addresses those people have confirmed and they're only giving
four of them out. So if I don't do this
right away, someone else might get my prize and it
down here in red a big important winners who have
not yet confirmed their email must do so within eight
(21:29):
hours in order to not lose their gift. So here's
that urgency down here. So again acting out of emotions,
you're excited. This is a kit that you want. It's
got things in there that you need. It's going to
save you money. You don't have to go out and
buy it. You might be more apt to confirm your
gift here on this link right here. So and then
(21:52):
that's going to take you to a malicious site. I'm
guessing it's probably going to ask for credit card information
because you're going to have to pay a small fee
in order, maybe a shipping charge, in order to get
it sent to you, and then your credit card is
going to be compromised, and it very well could. Because
it's a Medicare kit. It might ask you for your
(22:14):
Medicare information, it could ask you for other personal sensitive
information that Sometimes if you're still in you know, you're
in that emotional state, you're not thinking rationally like why
do they need that? Why do they need my Medicare information?
If this is CBS and it's the pharmacy, they have
my information, why do they need that from me? Again,
(22:36):
you might not be thinking those things, you know, like
you normally would if you're in your rational state. So
there's an example there. Here's the job techt. These ones
have been going around like crazy lately. I am getting
these probably three to four a week. Sometimes they show
the name of a company, other times they don't. But
(22:59):
this one in partwent you know you first look up
here at this email address. This isn't even coming from
a company's you know, website. So like I have Rose
Resources outreached to safeguard the elderly owns the domain roseadvocacy
dot org. Well that's where our email addresses are. It's
(23:22):
Joyce Petrowski at Roseadvocacy dot org or Brian Watson who's
been a guest host on here before, Brian Watson at
Roseadvocacy dot org. I have one that says grants for
the grant writer at Roseadvocacy dot org. Things like that.
So this is iCloud dot com. So why would a
(23:43):
company that would First of all, why are they sending
text messages to want to hire you? Right? Why are
they not reaching out in other means like hey, maybe
a phone call or you know, they're they're putting information
out through uh companies that help them find employees. So
(24:04):
here position and you know, there's a lot of people
these days, and there have been over the past year
that these have been coming out that have been looking
for work, whether they've been laid off or let go
or you know, had to leave a job, company closed down, whatever,
that are looking for work. And so they get this
(24:27):
and they get excited, you know, data marketing okay, one
hundred percent. Remote work Short term training courses are provided
to help you get started quickly and understand customer needs.
Remote work can work from anywhere, work from home, you
can travel and work from wherever you're at. It says
work from anywhere. So basic salary eight hundred dollars per week,
(24:52):
sixty to one hundred and eighty dollars per hour, sixty
dollars per hour. If you figure that out, eight hundred
dollars per per week, you're only working like maybe twelve
to fourteen hours a week. That is really part time.
If you're making one hundred and eighty dollars per hour,
you might be working four hours per week. And for
(25:16):
working four to maybe fourteen hours a week, they're going
to give you benefits. So they want you to be
age twenty five and above, but they're going to give
you health insurance, four to one K, paid vacation, and
other benefits for working four to fourteen hours a week.
That is just to remember that old adage. If it
(25:38):
sounds too good to be true, it probably is. This
is right here is too good to be true. We
currently have twenty eight vacancies, so they have a lot
of openings. So maybe you you know vacancies. You don't
know if they're all in one one department marketing department
or are they in these other departments you don't know.
(25:58):
And they look forward to working with you to create
the future. So send a text message here to this number,
and I don't know what area code two six is,
but you can look it up if you're interested in
looking it up. So there's a lot of information here
that gets you into an emotional state, especially if you
(26:18):
are someone who is looking for a job that doesn't
currently have one, and you are going to get excited
that you're going to make all this money for only
working four hours to fourteen hours, that you're not thinking rationally, well,
this doesn't make sense. How am I going to get
health insurance for a one K paid vacation and other
(26:38):
benefits if I'm only working four hours a week. If
I'm only working fourteen hours a week, that just sounds
too good to be true. Right, They're going to pay
you for vacation, but yet you're only working four to
fourteen hours a week, it seems like every week you're
getting vacation. So there's just a lot of you know,
red flags in here. But again, if you're in that
emotional state where you're you're all excited that, oh my gosh,
(27:01):
this is the perfect job. I don't have to worry
about commuting someplace. I don't you know, I can work
from home. I can you know, have more time in
my schedule because I don't have the commute, just a
bunch of different things. You're excited, you're not really thinking
through exactly what they're saying in here, and you're going
to be apt to send a text message here to
(27:22):
get more information. But then you're engaging with the scammer.
And again we the person that sent this to us,
they did not respond to the text. We're not responding
to the text. But they're most likely on these job scams.
They want you to They give you some reason, and
if you're still in that emotional state, you're you know,
(27:42):
it's a believable reason to have to pay money over
in order to get a bunch of things that you
need for your job, or the promise that you're going
to get reimbursed if you go out and buy this stuff,
or they're going to send you a check to cover
the cost, but they're going to send they send you
extra money, and then they want you to send the
(28:02):
difference back and come to find out a couple days later,
you find out you never had the money to begin with.
There's just a lot of different things that they can
do here, so the best things to do here. You know,
it's a fake email address. It doesn't even have a
company's name here, just down here, report junk and then
delete it. And if you're looking for a job, you
(28:23):
know you can look in. There's a lot of different
online searches I think indeed is one, Zip Recruiters another.
They have a bunch of different online companies where you
can upload and your resume and all of that stuff
and put the details in as to what type of
job you're looking for, and it matches you up with
these companies. So just use online reputable or other in
(28:48):
person reputable sources when you're trying to find a job.
Let's see the last one I have here is some
sample phishing techs. This is toll fees. I think just
about everybody has received these. Just know if you get
one that says you owe a toll in Arizona, it's
(29:10):
automatically a scam. There are no toll roads in the
state of Arizona. I don't know about other states, but
you could always just do a quick Google search and
find out if whatever particular state has toll roads, and
then you could always find the toll road authority and
contact them directly for that state to find out if
(29:31):
you have an actual open toll Because you maybe have
visited that state recently and didn't know if don't remember
if you actually were on a toll road or not.
But you know, they send this first one out here,
you know, fast track laying toll on November twenty fourth,
again avoid penalties to ensure you get your driver's license.
(29:53):
So they're here trying to scare you that if you
don't pay this, you're not going to be able to
renew your driver's license, or that your driver's license might
be suspended. Here they have the link you can pay again.
They say reply why for yes, and then get back
into the text message to activate the link. Or you
can copy it into this specifically says a Safari browser
(30:17):
and open it. And then they come over here, and
it's now December seventh. You get another one. Excessive late fees,
potential legal actions. So they've stepped up their game to
scare you even more. You know, you look here and now, yes,
thetoll roads dot Com over here. It was the toll
(30:38):
roads dot blog slash pay and now it has this
bunch of numbers and letters here and it has a
slash mark and then us. I think that's kind of
to lead you that this might be a government authority,
but those are dot gov if they're a government, same
thing here reply why, and then the same exact message
(31:00):
comes over down here, but they've changed the date. They're
giving you another chance, but again to potential legal action.
This is where they're upping their game to scare you.
And you know, a lot of us older adults, we
pay our bills on time, and we take pride that
we don't leave you know, we don't have all these
late fees and that these companies were not constantly paying
(31:25):
our bills late. We take pride in paying our bills
on time. And so older adults might have more of
a tendency to get into this emotional state because they
don't want to not pay their bills, and without thinking,
they just might click on the link and pay it. Again,
your credit card is going to be compromised, and then
(31:46):
they very well could ask for some personal information that
you might not be thinking of. Well, why do they
need this? This doesn't make any sense. So again this
was a text message. They're trying to scare you, and
then you know immediately you need to pay immediately to
avoid further action. And then these last two especially legal action.
(32:07):
So again it's a way to scare. Here's the anatomy
of a scam. Again. This is something that we give
out in our presentations that we give and we go
over it, and we actually do relate this to a
few different scams, like a grandparent scam, a romance scam,
we might do some investment scam. So we do in
our presentations talk about specific scams and then you know,
(32:30):
people have questions about specific like maybe phone calls or
text messages, things like that. So I'm going to stop sharing.
So just know that the contact can come in a
wide variety of ways. If you are connected online, that
just opens up the doors on how many ways that
(32:52):
you can be contacted. And just always take a pause
before you act on anything. Just take you know, you
get the email, the text message, even a phone call. Right.
Don't be afraid, as Brian said in I Think it
was last week's show, don't be afraid to hang up
(33:16):
if you know it's a scammer. Don't be afraid to
hang up. If you're not sure who it is and
you think it might be a scammer, don't be afraid
to hang up. Just hang up, and then you know
the toll roads, right, they're going to send you a
notice in the mail and then you can look at
it and do your research on if it's actually a
valid notice that you were on that toll road on
(33:39):
that specific day. But that's your way to do your
research and verify that it is actually legitimate. So anyways,
the anatomy of a scam, I believe we have it
on the website. I know we used to, but we
(33:59):
just changed a lot of the website and I believe
it's on there that people can download under the the
resources or maybe the scams tab where you can download that.
But like I said, if you book us to come
out and do these presentations, this is something that we
(34:21):
do give out during the presentations in our resource packet.
We have a twenty page resource packet where we talk
about a lot of different ways that you can protect yourself.
One of the great things is that you know, this
is not a one size fits all resource packet where
we say you have to do every single thing that's
in there. It can't be because everybody's personal situation is different.
(34:44):
So what might work for one person all of them
might not work for another person because everybody's personal situation
is different. But it gives you options of different things
that you can put into place to help protect yourself
and then get you more knowledgeable about how scams work.
You take that resource pack at home, hang that anatomy
of a scam up someplace where you're looking at it
(35:06):
on you know that it's a reminder right and on
our email we do the email newsletters monthly, but every
Tuesday morning we do what's called a Tuesday Tip. It
comes out at nine point fifteen, so I'm just looking
at the time now. This week's is going to come
out in about forty minutes and it's just a quick tip.
And the nice thing about it is, even if it's
(35:27):
a tip you already knew about, it's a reminder about scams.
So you keep your scam prevention top of mind. So
the next time you're contacted, you are going to be
more apt to have a scam in the back of
your mind to where then you're going to take a
pause and you're going to say, Okay, I don't need
(35:48):
to act on this right now. I'm going to come
back and look at it later. I'm going to go
talk to my trusted person and see what they think
about it. So you're not acting right away, you're taking
a pause, you're thinking about it, you're talking to someone
and you're going to verify the situation going and finding
out if this is actually legitimate or not. So we
(36:12):
all want everybody to be scam aware and have that
scam avoidance and have that healthy skepticism, so don't forget
to check out our website at Rosadvocacy dot org for
a lot more resources, and sign up for our newsletters
down at the bottom of the homepage. You can sign
up for the emailed one or the mailed one, or
sign up for both. Our social media links are up
(36:33):
there Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram and also YouTube. All of
these episodes are on our YouTube channel and the shorts
and reels are on there as well, so go ahead
and subscribe to that YouTube channel so you'll always get
the notifications of when these come out. And don't forget.
This is a great sponsorship opportunity to sponsor our radio
(36:56):
show program to keep it going, to keep getting this
information out to people, and you could be at the
forefront with the other companies in your industry to say, hey,
I'm sponsoring this program because I want to help protect
the people in my community. I want to make sure
this stays out there and more people can have this
information because we are on board with we don't want
(37:19):
anybody to fall victim to scams, and so this education
is crucial one, the education on knowing to recognize a
scam and then knowing how to protect yourself and avoid
falling victim. So thank you, And next week, for the
next few weeks, you are going to see Brian Watson.
He's got some great topics coming up that he's going
(37:40):
to discuss with you, So put it on your calendar
and don't forget to tune in next Tuesday morning. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
Well, that's all the knowledge for this episode. Tune in
every Tuesday at eight am Pacific time on KFOURHD Radio
at KFOURHD dot com as Joyce explores a variety of knowledge.
You have the power to make scam protection your healthy
habit and until then, feel free to reach out to
Joyce and let's talk about scams.
This program is designed to provide general information with regards
to the subject matters covered. This information is given with
the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station
are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial,
legal counseling, professional service, or any advice. You should seek
(00:22):
the services of competent professionals before applying or trying any
suggested ideas. The information contained in this podcast is intended
for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for
individual professional legal advice. The podcast information was carefully compiled
from vetted sources and references. However, Rose Resources outreach to
(00:44):
safeguard the elderly cannot guarantee that you will not fall
victim to a scam. Let's talk about scams. It's the
must listen show for anyone who wants to protect themselves
and their loved ones from scams. Every Tuesday am Pacific
time on K four HD Radio, Joyce Petrowski, founder of Rose,
(01:05):
and her guests will provide valuable insights and practical tips
on how to recognize and protect yourself from scams. And
now here is your host, Joyce Petrowski.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Hi, everybody, welcome back. To let's talk about scams. I'm
Joyce Petrowski, founder of Rose Resources Outreach to Safeguard the Elderly,
five oh one C three nonprofit. You can find more
resources on our website at Roseadvocacy dot org. You'll find
our social media links on the homepage and if you
scroll down to the bottom of the homepage, you'll find
(01:42):
where you can sign up for our emailed newsletters and
we also send one out in the mail. You can
sign up for one or both of them, or share
it with a friend or a family member that you
think could benefit from it. And we are looking for
sponsors for this radio show, So if you're interested in
(02:03):
sponsoring this show, reach out to us at info at
Roseadvocacy dot org and let's talk about it. A lot
of great benefits for you out there helping the general
community learning how to spot and avoid falling victim to scams.
So today I'm going to talk about the anatomy of
(02:25):
a scam. This is something that we created at Rose
gosh two years ago. I think when we would go
out and do our presentations, you know, we would try
to talk about the probably the top five to seven
scams that had a tendency to target the older adult population.
And when we're done with the presentation, you know that
(02:49):
same day, the next day, a couple days later, there's
all these new scams out there. You know, they've either
created new ones, or they've taken aspects from two different scams,
three different scams, and put them together and come up
with a whole new scam. And so we were always
behind the eight ball trying to get this information, get
this information out to people, to make everybody aware and educated.
(03:11):
And so we created this Anatomy of a scam to say,
how could we break scams down in general and have
something that really applies to the majority, if not all,
of the scams that are out there. So we talked
about this early on when we first started the show.
And I am going to share my screen to here
(03:35):
we go. Let's see to pull up our Anatomy of
a scam right here. So excuse me. So the first part,
if you see here this initiating contact. Well, how that's
the first step. So a scammer has to contact you
somehow where when scams first started, you know, before or
(04:00):
all the cell phones and all this online stuff, a
lot of it, if not all of it came in
the mail. They would send you letters in the mail.
They're still doing that today, not as much. It's more
costly than just finding people online. And with our cell
phones here, which are really we call them mobile phone
(04:21):
cell phones, but they're when they're connected to the internet,
they are really mobile computers, and you have to treat
them as such, which is why you should always have
your good antivirus anti malware software on your phone as well,
because if it's connected to the internet, it's just like
a computer. And if you're going to protect your computer,
(04:42):
your laptop, your iPad with a good antivirus anti malware
software that is on and running twenty four to seven,
you want to protect your phone as well. So that's
a big way they they'll find you online. They if
you're on social media, they can message you on social media.
That happens a lot like with the romance scams. You know,
(05:04):
they have all these fake profiles out there on social
media and they start commenting on your post and immediately
want to take it to a more secure, private, you know,
messaging app, so it's more private just between the two
of you, but they can also text you, they can
email you, and yeah, you know they can call you.
(05:28):
It happens a lot. There's a lot of phone scams,
there's a lot of tech scams, there's a lot of
email scams out there. So that's the first part, and
we're really hoping that everyone can identify the scam at
this first part, the initiating contact, and then they don't
engage with a scammer, because once you engage, once you
(05:52):
answer that phone, you reply to that text message, you
reply to that email, you call a phone number that's
on the email, that's in something you got in the mail,
that's in a text message, you click on a link
that's in there, that's engaging with the scammer, and it
immediately goes into the second part, creating a compelling reason
(06:13):
to act. And this is where the scammers are experts
and they exploit your emotions. Now we list four of
them here. Fear, need, isolation, greed. I don't really like
the word greed, but it is what it is. They're
going to get you into some sort of emotional state,
and they know the more they can keep you in
(06:36):
that emotional state than the more app they are to get.
Number three here, which is when they request payment. A
lot of times demand payment that they're more app to
get what they want as long as you're in that
emotional state, because I think we can all think back
to times where we've made a decision on something based
(06:56):
out of emotions, and then a couple hours later, a
couple days later, whenever that timeframe is, you're in a
rational state and you're thinking about that decision in that situation.
A lot of times you'll go, oh, I would not
have made that same decision if I was not in
an emotional state, if I was in my rational state
(07:18):
of mind. So scammers know this, and they're going to
exploit your emotions all in an effort to get your money.
And we've gone over some different ways. You know, they
like crypto. When cryptocurrency first came out, it was anonymous
and not so much anymore with new technology and a
lot more resources, law enforcements able to figure out who
(07:41):
those crypto wallets belonged to and trace and trace the
money in the cryptocurrency, so it's not as anonymous, but
they still use it because it's instant, and you know,
at gas stations and shopping malls, there's these ATM machines
and they're not ATM machines from a bank where you
can go put your debit card in and get money out.
(08:03):
They're cryptocurrency ATM machines, and yes, they might have a
sign on them that says, you know, if anybody's forcing
you to put money in here, don't do it, are you?
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Do?
Speaker 2 (08:13):
You know the person that you're sending this money to
have you meant them you know, they might have a
lot of warning signs on it. But the reality is
when someone gets to the point that they are putting
money in a cryptocurrency ATM machine, they're already fully in
that emotional state and they're not even reading the warning signs,
or if they look at them, they're not really understood.
(08:35):
They're not really deciphering what that sign says. All they're
doing is putting the money in all in a goal
to you know, if they were if they were scared
into thinking their grandchild's in trouble, or it's a love
interest and it's a way to continue this love interest,
or if they think they're winning this big prize and
(08:57):
this is a way for them to pay taxes or
fees a lot of different things. They're emotional and they're
not reading those warning signs. That are there. Gift cards, Yes,
they still use gift cards. They don't need you to
send the gift card. They just need you to give
them the information on the back of the gift cards,
(09:18):
so the gift card number and then a lot of
times you have to scratch off or peel off what
the pin number is. That's all they need and then
they have access to that gift card. Wire transfers, again,
it's instant as to how they get the money. Sometimes
with wire transfers it says it could take a day
or it could take a couple of days, depending on
how you set it up, but normally they're going to
(09:38):
get you to send it immediately. And then there's these
peer to peer payment apps, the venmo Zell's, PayPal, etc.
Those are a convenience tool for you. A lot of
people use them, like to send money to their kids
or to a family member, is a gift, or to
if they have someone dog sitting, they might pay their
dog sitter that way, they might pay their babysitter that way,
(10:03):
you know. And there are some people that I've come
across that use them, that have a small company and
they're selling a product and it's just convenient for them.
You know, they might be before they ship the product
because they're not actually meeting the person in person. They're
they're shipping it to somebody that they just have those
QR codes or links where somebody can go on and
(10:26):
pay them via PayPal, Venmo or Zelle. So if you
have those, we understand that it works for some people,
but please have all of the privacy and security settings
that is allowed on those apps. Have that all set up,
have multifactory authentication set up, and make sure you know
(10:48):
who you are sending the money to or who you
are receiving the money from, because your information is then
also in that person's Venmo or zell or PayPal, and
if that person's platform gets the Venmo, PayPal or zell
(11:08):
gets compromised, well then they might have some of your
information and then they might be targeting you to try
to get you to send money through those means as well.
So urgency we have here in the center, the center
button here. The majority of the scams are urgent. Right,
(11:30):
It could really only take a couple hours between initiating contact,
going through creating the compelling reason to act, and then
you sending money to the scammer. There are some scams
which the contact comes and this creating a compelling reason
to act is really more of a grooming. They go
(11:53):
through a grooming process which would kind of be in
between initiating contact and creating a compelling reason to act.
Like a romance scam. They don't come out of the
gate on a romance scam asking for money. They're going
through a grooming process per se to get you into
their absolute trust. So you are only talking to them.
You only believe what they say. Everything's private. It doesn't
(12:17):
matter who's telling you that you know this person. While
they might be a real person, because it might, you know,
sometimes it can be artificial intelligence as well. But you know,
even though it's a real person, they don't have your
best interest at heart. This is not a love interest.
They're just trying to scam you. The deeper you get
into this absolute trust, the harder it is to break
(12:40):
that absolute trust. And so then once the scammer really
feels that they've got you in that absolute trust, they
go right into the having that compelling reason to get
you to send money. And then it's always urgent. The
urgency is, you know, needing the money is always urgent.
They need it right away, and then they always have
multiple reasons and excuses as to why they need more
money and more money and more money. So but then
(13:05):
I wanted to show you some examples of some different
scams that people have sent us that you can kind
of We're going to walk through, Well, where's the contact,
what's the compelling reason to act? And then you know,
how do they, you know, want you to send money.
So I'm going to pull up one of our advisory
board members, doctor Martina Doves. She's been on the show before,
(13:29):
Psychologists that is an expert in these frauds and scams
and the psychology behind them. She had received this one.
I think a lot of us have received these from
you know, this is a Washington Department of Motor Vehicles,
but we've a lot of people received them from Arizona
(13:50):
or Nevada or California really, you know, from whatever state
they live in, or if it's a if it's a
toll fee, toll road fee, it could be from a
different state, things like that. But this is one that
she recently received, and so the contact. She didn't take
a screenshot of the text, but this is the text
(14:11):
that she received, and you know, final notice, So that
gets kind of scary. And this is a Washington Department
of Motor Vehicles, a government agency is so an authority agency,
right because we work with the Motor Vehicle Department when
we have a vehicle to get our driver's license. A
(14:32):
lot of different things. Well, there's an enforcement penalties begin
on June twenty fifth, and so they want you to
pay by June twenty fourth, So there's that urgency to
make this payment before penalties begin, and you have an
outstanding traffic ticket, and so they actually then put some
(14:52):
administrative code in there. I have no clue if this
is an actual code reference or if they're just making
up these code numbers. But if you don't complete payment
by June twenty fourth, we're going to take the following actions.
So you're going to go into a violation database. They're
going to suspend your vehicle registration, suspend your driving privileges,
(15:15):
transfer to a toll booth, and charge thirty five percent
service fee, and you may be prosecuted and your credit
score will be affected. So there's a lot of things
in here that can scare people. You may be prosecuted.
Nobody wants to be prosecuted. And so that's that's something
that could instill fear in you suspend driving privileges for
(15:38):
thirty days. A lot of us drive on a daily basis,
multiple times during the day, and that's part of our
independence and we don't want to have that taken away
from US vehicle registration. Even if they don't suspend driving privileges,
if they suspend your vehicle registration and you're out driving,
you know that's against the law. So again this is
(15:59):
all a fear based in here violations fear based and
here pay now, and then there was a link, and
then here it is please pay immediately. So there's that
urgency before enforcement to avoid license suspension and further legal
disputes and so on this one in particular. You know,
(16:20):
sometimes you might actually get the link that you can
click on other times we've seen this a lot recently,
reply with a why for yes and then reopen the
message to click the link or copy it into your browser.
So that's just a way they've changed it up. Instead
of actually putting the link there, they want you to
(16:41):
reply with a why for yes. So this is one
that's been going around and I think a lot of
people are getting it in a lot of different states.
But so the contact was text message or I it
could have been an email as well. They can come
in emails, text messages. And then the compelling reason to
(17:06):
act that emotional state is they're getting you in that
state of fear, and they're coming from an authority position. Right.
They have this administrative code the Department of Motor Vehicles.
You must complete payment by a certain date or there's
all these fear based tactics down here of things they
could do if you don't pay by this date. And
(17:28):
then here's the urgency, please pay immediately. They want you
to click on the link, and we obviously she did
obviously did not click on the link. But I'm sure
when you go in there, it's going to want you
to transfer the money. It's going to want you to
use a Venmo, PayPal something like that, maybe even have
(17:51):
you know, send cash here who knows, but ways that
they can get money immediately. So that's one example. Let
me pull up a few more here. So here's a
medicare kit scam that was going around. This is a
screenshot of what someone had sent us. You can see
(18:13):
this picture of this kit here and it has CBS
that it's coming from CBS is a reputable company and
they are a big pharmacy. They are a big store national.
They have locations in multiple areas in all different states,
and so it's a big, well known company that a
(18:35):
lot of people are already going to have accounts with,
whether you have purchased something there and you've signed up
for their rewards and so they have your email address
with the rewards or you use them for your pharmacy
and they have your contact information through the pharmacy. But
here's one where you've been randomly selected to get one
(18:58):
of these Medicare kits. And based on the picture, you know,
this kit looks awesome, it looks like it probably costs
a lot of money with the different things that are
in there. But only four people were chosen for this
special giveaway. So it's like, oh wow, you're excited. You're
one of four people that are going to get this,
(19:19):
and they want to express their gratitude for your continued support.
So for people that get this and they are actually
a customer of CBS, this is all the more believable
to them because they are a customer, and especially if
they are on Medicare and CBS is going to know
that they're on Medicare if they're a customer of the pharmacy,
(19:40):
because they're going to have their Medicare information. So again,
all the more believable and large companies do sometimes you know,
it's at their discretion, but sometimes they might send you
a little gift just as a as a thank you. Right, So,
getting little gifts from companies not you know, be out
(20:01):
of the ordinary. I don't know if CBS sends gifts
to their customers or not, but uh, they want you
to click on this link confirm your gift. So right,
so here they've sent you this email or text message
and they get you excited that you're going to win
(20:24):
this prize that you're like, I could really use this.
You're excited, and that's the greed emotion. I'm not real
thrilled with the word greed, but it's all that you
know that you're excited that you're going to get this
prize for free. It's going to have all this great
stuff in it that I can use that I don't
have to go out and buy, so I can save
some money. And they actually give you a list of winners.
(20:46):
Now we've blocked out the email addresses here. But look here,
these are all Yahoo accounts, so you know you they've
sent it to you, and you know this is going
to have could have your address, it's going to have
your email address right here that says not confirmed, and
(21:07):
you're going to see, oh my gosh, these other three
email addresses those people have confirmed and they're only giving
four of them out. So if I don't do this
right away, someone else might get my prize and it
down here in red a big important winners who have
not yet confirmed their email must do so within eight
(21:29):
hours in order to not lose their gift. So here's
that urgency down here. So again acting out of emotions,
you're excited. This is a kit that you want. It's
got things in there that you need. It's going to
save you money. You don't have to go out and
buy it. You might be more apt to confirm your
gift here on this link right here. So and then
(21:52):
that's going to take you to a malicious site. I'm
guessing it's probably going to ask for credit card information
because you're going to have to pay a small fee
in order, maybe a shipping charge, in order to get
it sent to you, and then your credit card is
going to be compromised, and it very well could. Because
it's a Medicare kit. It might ask you for your
(22:14):
Medicare information, it could ask you for other personal sensitive
information that Sometimes if you're still in you know, you're
in that emotional state, you're not thinking rationally like why
do they need that? Why do they need my Medicare information?
If this is CBS and it's the pharmacy, they have
my information, why do they need that from me? Again,
(22:36):
you might not be thinking those things, you know, like
you normally would if you're in your rational state. So
there's an example there. Here's the job techt. These ones
have been going around like crazy lately. I am getting
these probably three to four a week. Sometimes they show
the name of a company, other times they don't. But
(22:59):
this one in partwent you know you first look up
here at this email address. This isn't even coming from
a company's you know, website. So like I have Rose
Resources outreached to safeguard the elderly owns the domain roseadvocacy
dot org. Well that's where our email addresses are. It's
(23:22):
Joyce Petrowski at Roseadvocacy dot org or Brian Watson who's
been a guest host on here before, Brian Watson at
Roseadvocacy dot org. I have one that says grants for
the grant writer at Roseadvocacy dot org. Things like that.
So this is iCloud dot com. So why would a
(23:43):
company that would First of all, why are they sending
text messages to want to hire you? Right? Why are
they not reaching out in other means like hey, maybe
a phone call or you know, they're they're putting information
out through uh companies that help them find employees. So
(24:04):
here position and you know, there's a lot of people
these days, and there have been over the past year
that these have been coming out that have been looking
for work, whether they've been laid off or let go
or you know, had to leave a job, company closed down, whatever,
that are looking for work. And so they get this
(24:27):
and they get excited, you know, data marketing okay, one
hundred percent. Remote work Short term training courses are provided
to help you get started quickly and understand customer needs.
Remote work can work from anywhere, work from home, you
can travel and work from wherever you're at. It says
work from anywhere. So basic salary eight hundred dollars per week,
(24:52):
sixty to one hundred and eighty dollars per hour, sixty
dollars per hour. If you figure that out, eight hundred
dollars per per week, you're only working like maybe twelve
to fourteen hours a week. That is really part time.
If you're making one hundred and eighty dollars per hour,
you might be working four hours per week. And for
(25:16):
working four to maybe fourteen hours a week, they're going
to give you benefits. So they want you to be
age twenty five and above, but they're going to give
you health insurance, four to one K, paid vacation, and
other benefits for working four to fourteen hours a week.
That is just to remember that old adage. If it
(25:38):
sounds too good to be true, it probably is. This
is right here is too good to be true. We
currently have twenty eight vacancies, so they have a lot
of openings. So maybe you you know vacancies. You don't
know if they're all in one one department marketing department
or are they in these other departments you don't know.
(25:58):
And they look forward to working with you to create
the future. So send a text message here to this number,
and I don't know what area code two six is,
but you can look it up if you're interested in
looking it up. So there's a lot of information here
that gets you into an emotional state, especially if you
(26:18):
are someone who is looking for a job that doesn't
currently have one, and you are going to get excited
that you're going to make all this money for only
working four hours to fourteen hours, that you're not thinking rationally, well,
this doesn't make sense. How am I going to get
health insurance for a one K paid vacation and other
(26:38):
benefits if I'm only working four hours a week. If
I'm only working fourteen hours a week, that just sounds
too good to be true. Right, They're going to pay
you for vacation, but yet you're only working four to
fourteen hours a week, it seems like every week you're
getting vacation. So there's just a lot of you know,
red flags in here. But again, if you're in that
emotional state where you're you're all excited that, oh my gosh,
(27:01):
this is the perfect job. I don't have to worry
about commuting someplace. I don't you know, I can work
from home. I can you know, have more time in
my schedule because I don't have the commute, just a
bunch of different things. You're excited, you're not really thinking
through exactly what they're saying in here, and you're going
to be apt to send a text message here to
(27:22):
get more information. But then you're engaging with the scammer.
And again we the person that sent this to us,
they did not respond to the text. We're not responding
to the text. But they're most likely on these job scams.
They want you to They give you some reason, and
if you're still in that emotional state, you're you know,
(27:42):
it's a believable reason to have to pay money over
in order to get a bunch of things that you
need for your job, or the promise that you're going
to get reimbursed if you go out and buy this stuff,
or they're going to send you a check to cover
the cost, but they're going to send they send you
extra money, and then they want you to send the
(28:02):
difference back and come to find out a couple days later,
you find out you never had the money to begin with.
There's just a lot of different things that they can
do here, so the best things to do here. You know,
it's a fake email address. It doesn't even have a
company's name here, just down here, report junk and then
delete it. And if you're looking for a job, you
(28:23):
know you can look in. There's a lot of different
online searches I think indeed is one, Zip Recruiters another.
They have a bunch of different online companies where you
can upload and your resume and all of that stuff
and put the details in as to what type of
job you're looking for, and it matches you up with
these companies. So just use online reputable or other in
(28:48):
person reputable sources when you're trying to find a job.
Let's see the last one I have here is some
sample phishing techs. This is toll fees. I think just
about everybody has received these. Just know if you get
one that says you owe a toll in Arizona, it's
(29:10):
automatically a scam. There are no toll roads in the
state of Arizona. I don't know about other states, but
you could always just do a quick Google search and
find out if whatever particular state has toll roads, and
then you could always find the toll road authority and
contact them directly for that state to find out if
(29:31):
you have an actual open toll Because you maybe have
visited that state recently and didn't know if don't remember
if you actually were on a toll road or not.
But you know, they send this first one out here,
you know, fast track laying toll on November twenty fourth,
again avoid penalties to ensure you get your driver's license.
(29:53):
So they're here trying to scare you that if you
don't pay this, you're not going to be able to
renew your driver's license, or that your driver's license might
be suspended. Here they have the link you can pay again.
They say reply why for yes, and then get back
into the text message to activate the link. Or you
can copy it into this specifically says a Safari browser
(30:17):
and open it. And then they come over here, and
it's now December seventh. You get another one. Excessive late fees,
potential legal actions. So they've stepped up their game to
scare you even more. You know, you look here and now, yes,
thetoll roads dot Com over here. It was the toll
(30:38):
roads dot blog slash pay and now it has this
bunch of numbers and letters here and it has a
slash mark and then us. I think that's kind of
to lead you that this might be a government authority,
but those are dot gov if they're a government, same
thing here reply why, and then the same exact message
(31:00):
comes over down here, but they've changed the date. They're
giving you another chance, but again to potential legal action.
This is where they're upping their game to scare you.
And you know, a lot of us older adults, we
pay our bills on time, and we take pride that
we don't leave you know, we don't have all these
late fees and that these companies were not constantly paying
(31:25):
our bills late. We take pride in paying our bills
on time. And so older adults might have more of
a tendency to get into this emotional state because they
don't want to not pay their bills, and without thinking,
they just might click on the link and pay it. Again,
your credit card is going to be compromised, and then
(31:46):
they very well could ask for some personal information that
you might not be thinking of. Well, why do they
need this? This doesn't make any sense. So again this
was a text message. They're trying to scare you, and
then you know immediately you need to pay immediately to
avoid further action. And then these last two especially legal action.
(32:07):
So again it's a way to scare. Here's the anatomy
of a scam. Again. This is something that we give
out in our presentations that we give and we go
over it, and we actually do relate this to a
few different scams, like a grandparent scam, a romance scam,
we might do some investment scam. So we do in
our presentations talk about specific scams and then you know,
(32:30):
people have questions about specific like maybe phone calls or
text messages, things like that. So I'm going to stop sharing.
So just know that the contact can come in a
wide variety of ways. If you are connected online, that
just opens up the doors on how many ways that
(32:52):
you can be contacted. And just always take a pause
before you act on anything. Just take you know, you
get the email, the text message, even a phone call. Right.
Don't be afraid, as Brian said in I Think it
was last week's show, don't be afraid to hang up
(33:16):
if you know it's a scammer. Don't be afraid to
hang up. If you're not sure who it is and
you think it might be a scammer, don't be afraid
to hang up. Just hang up, and then you know
the toll roads, right, they're going to send you a
notice in the mail and then you can look at
it and do your research on if it's actually a
valid notice that you were on that toll road on
(33:39):
that specific day. But that's your way to do your
research and verify that it is actually legitimate. So anyways,
the anatomy of a scam, I believe we have it
on the website. I know we used to, but we
(33:59):
just changed a lot of the website and I believe
it's on there that people can download under the the
resources or maybe the scams tab where you can download that.
But like I said, if you book us to come
out and do these presentations, this is something that we
(34:21):
do give out during the presentations in our resource packet.
We have a twenty page resource packet where we talk
about a lot of different ways that you can protect yourself.
One of the great things is that you know, this
is not a one size fits all resource packet where
we say you have to do every single thing that's
in there. It can't be because everybody's personal situation is different.
(34:44):
So what might work for one person all of them
might not work for another person because everybody's personal situation
is different. But it gives you options of different things
that you can put into place to help protect yourself
and then get you more knowledgeable about how scams work.
You take that resource pack at home, hang that anatomy
of a scam up someplace where you're looking at it
(35:06):
on you know that it's a reminder right and on
our email we do the email newsletters monthly, but every
Tuesday morning we do what's called a Tuesday Tip. It
comes out at nine point fifteen, so I'm just looking
at the time now. This week's is going to come
out in about forty minutes and it's just a quick tip.
And the nice thing about it is, even if it's
(35:27):
a tip you already knew about, it's a reminder about scams.
So you keep your scam prevention top of mind. So
the next time you're contacted, you are going to be
more apt to have a scam in the back of
your mind to where then you're going to take a
pause and you're going to say, Okay, I don't need
(35:48):
to act on this right now. I'm going to come
back and look at it later. I'm going to go
talk to my trusted person and see what they think
about it. So you're not acting right away, you're taking
a pause, you're thinking about it, you're talking to someone
and you're going to verify the situation going and finding
out if this is actually legitimate or not. So we
(36:12):
all want everybody to be scam aware and have that
scam avoidance and have that healthy skepticism, so don't forget
to check out our website at Rosadvocacy dot org for
a lot more resources, and sign up for our newsletters
down at the bottom of the homepage. You can sign
up for the emailed one or the mailed one, or
sign up for both. Our social media links are up
(36:33):
there Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram and also YouTube. All of
these episodes are on our YouTube channel and the shorts
and reels are on there as well, so go ahead
and subscribe to that YouTube channel so you'll always get
the notifications of when these come out. And don't forget.
This is a great sponsorship opportunity to sponsor our radio
(36:56):
show program to keep it going, to keep getting this
information out to people, and you could be at the
forefront with the other companies in your industry to say, hey,
I'm sponsoring this program because I want to help protect
the people in my community. I want to make sure
this stays out there and more people can have this
information because we are on board with we don't want
(37:19):
anybody to fall victim to scams, and so this education
is crucial one, the education on knowing to recognize a
scam and then knowing how to protect yourself and avoid
falling victim. So thank you, And next week, for the
next few weeks, you are going to see Brian Watson.
He's got some great topics coming up that he's going
(37:40):
to discuss with you, So put it on your calendar
and don't forget to tune in next Tuesday morning. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
Well, that's all the knowledge for this episode. Tune in
every Tuesday at eight am Pacific time on KFOURHD Radio
at KFOURHD dot com as Joyce explores a variety of knowledge.
You have the power to make scam protection your healthy
habit and until then, feel free to reach out to
Joyce and let's talk about scams.
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